Fear's Touch: A Darkworld Novella (The Darkworld Series) (4 page)

The guy blinked at her. “All right. It’s just so we can get some context. We aren’t going to report you to our bosses. I can tell neither of you has messed with dark magic.”

“That one’s a bit dubious.” The other guy nodded at Berenice. “A demon’s touched you.”

Berenice sucked in a breath. Her face hardened into a mask of pure anger, and her entire body was shaking.

“Don’t you dare talk to me about that,” she said in a low voice. “Ever. That clear?”

Biker Guy looked even more surprised.

The other guy, however, said, “We can talk about what we like, girl. If there’s anything involving demons, it’s our business. Now, you can tell me the truth or I’ll have to bring you in for questioning.”

“There’s no need for that,” I said. “It’s pretty obvious neither of us conjured up that monster.”

“On the contrary, most demon victims are the summoners.”

I was beginning to really hate him.

“I didn’t summon it!” said Berenice. “God knows. The things always come after me. I didn’t do
anything
wrong. I’m not stupid.”

A smirk crossed the guy’s face. It didn’t make him look any less ridiculous. “Sure. I’ve seen your type before. You claim innocence, yet, you were targeted by a demon. Whether you are the summoner or not, that still makes you guilty.”

“What kind of bullcrap is that?” Berenice demanded.

“Jude,” said Biker Guy, “enough of that. I don’t know about you, but I want to get back to HQ and file this report before Mr Priestley sends someone out looking for us. You two,” he adds. “You’re welcome to come and pay us a visit if you change your mind about registering.”

Well, someone changed their mind fast.

Jude, on the other hand, glared at us. “Let me give you a word of advice,” he said. “We are cursed, one and all. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will realize you bring your fate on yourself.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I said. “You know, my parents were right about you being a crazy bunch of cultists.”

“
What
did you call us?”

Oh, crap. I probably shouldn’t have said that to the guy who could haul us off to the cells— an area of the Venantium’s headquarters my parents had refused to give me any details on.

But I wasn’t going to back down now.

“Crazy,” I said. “You’re a mental case.”

“Jude!” warned Biker Guy, as Jude advanced on me.

I felt a flood of satisfaction at the pale fury on his face. Turned out, I’d been storing a hell of a lot of pent-up anger, and it felt good to take it out on someone who deserved it.

“Let’s
go,
already.”

The rumbling sound of a bus smothered Jude’s reply. I glanced toward the end of the alleyway.
Crap, I’m not missing that bus.

I turned on my heel.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To university,” I said. “I’m a student there.”

“Me, too,” said Jude, with a flicker of a smile. “I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

Hell, he’s creepy.

“Whatever,” I muttered.

Thankfully, no one had made off with my suitcase while I’d been in the alley. The task of hauling it onto a packed-out bus distracted me from shadow-beasts and creepy Jude, and I lost Berenice somewhere in the crowd. She didn’t strike me as the friendly type, anyway.

The noisy, cramped bus felt like another world. Normally, I’d make an effort to talk to people, but my head was definitely not in the right place for general conversation. I needed a nap—or better, a drink.

I didn’t see Berenice again until much later, after I’d dragged my suitcase off the bus and waited for half an hour in the pouring rain to collect my new room key. I managed to charm some guy in the flat downstairs into helping me get all my luggage up to the third floor—seriously, they really needed to invest in some lifts—and elbowed my way through the awkward flat door into a packed corridor. Several other people moved in and out, occasionally colliding with armfuls of boxes and bags. I only had three; my parents were bringing the rest of my stuff up next weekend, but I figured I could survive a few days.

I maneuverd my suitcase through the chaos. Checking the number on my room key, I found the right door and unlocked it.

Damn. Nice room.
Not that I had much to put in it, and the walls were kind of blank. Plain desk and chair, relatively spotless blue carpet. My neat-freak mother wouldn’t have anything to complain about.

I flopped down on the bed. Home? I could live with this.

Just as long as nothing else attacked me.

Idiot. You know they can’t come to campus.

True, but Redthorne was a little too close for my liking. And there was the matter of creepy-ass Jude. What was
his
problem?

I groaned. So much for not getting involved with supernatural crap. Here, though, I could barely feel the Darkworld at all. It was like some weird sixth sense, like a radio playing faintly in the background, the tiniest hint of awareness of this dark, cold place. I glanced out the window at the fields leading down to a forest. Despite my knowing the monsters couldn’t get at me here, the setting was kind of creepy to say the least.

“You don’t scare me,” I told the memory and then almost jumped out my skin when someone knocked on my door.

Get a freaking grip!
I told myself, sliding off the bed and then peeking through the one-way spyhole at Berenice.

What was she doing here? Either the coincidence gods had landed us in the same flat, or there was something fishy going on. I opened the door.

“Hey,” she said.

I blinked at her. “Um, hi, Berenice. I didn’t know you were in this flat.”

“I moved here. I didn’t want to be on the ground floor.”

“Oh. I, uh, didn’t know you could do that.”

“Sorry, it’s a bit awkward. I just thought you should know. In case anything freaky happens.”

“It can’t happen here,” I said, glancing down the corridor to make sure no one was listening. Our flatmates appeared to have disappeared into their rooms to unpack, I guess. “My parents told me. There are barriers.”

“Really?” Berenice frowned. “But they attacked us before.”

“Honest. My parents worked for the Venantium.” I kept my voice low, just in case. “The barriers cover this whole area; the Venantium have it under control. No shadow-beast or whatever would ever come here.”

Hey, I sounded like a freaking expert on the subject. Weird.

“Oh.” She looked slightly embarrassed. “Well, if anything
does
happen, I want to be able to deal with it. Could you teach me?”

Huh?
“Uh…me? Teach you?”

I was so surprised, my voice came out more incredulous than I intended. A flush rose up Berenice’s face.

“Fine, you don’t have to. Whatever. Just thought I’d ask.”

“I’m not…”

I had no idea how I’d intended to finish that sentence, but at that moment, one of the other doors opened.

“Hi,” said the girl. “You two are Freshers, too?”

Berenice turned to face her. “Yeah, so?”

I winced inwardly. Yeah, someone wasn’t intending to make friends.

“Yes,” I said, walking around Berenice. I had nothing against her, but I wanted to forget the crazy and get to know my new flatmates. “I’m Claudia, nice to meet you.”

peration ignore-the-crazy went swimmingly for about a week. I ticked a bunch of things off my bucket list, anyway. Steal a traffic cone: check. Attempt to cook pasta in the one saucepan I’d brought and almost blow the flat up: check (What? I went to my room and forgot I’d left it on the hob…). Lose my purse and keys at a night club: check (thankfully, some kind person handed them in so I didn’t have to pay for a new key and cancel all my credit cards). Win the pub quiz: check. Run through campus at one in the morning wielding one of the Roleplaying Society’s cardboard swords…Okay, maybe it was a different kind of crazy, but what the hell.

Berenice stayed in her room most of the time, avoiding all the off-campus events. I guess if shadow-beasts had targeted
me,
I’d be a bit freaked out, but maybe it was because I had a while to get used to it, and I had no intention of it messing up my life. I even went back to Redthorne; it was where all the clubs were. I hadn’t seen any shadow-beasts even though I’d been there almost every night that week. The most sinister thing I’d seen was the creepy old man who tried to come onto me at Tanner’s Wine Bar. Hell, I’d even spent the night at a guy’s flat in town, and the worst thing I’d had to deal with was projectile-vomiting. Ew.

On the morning of my first lecture, I got up bright and early and stumbled around like a zombie, wondering if I’d last a minute into the lecture without falling asleep. To my surprise, Berenice actually knocked on my door and said she had the same lecture. I had no idea we were even doing the same course.

I could tell she wanted to say something to me—she kept fiddling with her hair and giving me sideways looks, kind of nervous—but we were also accompanied by two of our flatmates, Simon and Leanna, who also had lectures at this ungodly hour. Seriously, whoever’s idea it was to schedule 9:00 a.m. lectures the morning after the big night out needed their head examined.

Anyway, I took off as soon as the lecture finished, hoping the lecturer hadn’t noticed me napping in the back row. I’d forgotten Berenice was even there, to be honest, so it came as a surprise to run into her later talking to Jude, of all people, outside the library.

Soon as he spotted me, he stopped speaking and glared. I glared back.

“What?” I said, shoving the stack of books I’d been carrying into my bag.

He said nothing, just glared. I shrugged and carried on walking.

Berenice caught up to me a minute later.

“Don’t you have any more classes?” she asked.

Nice to see you, too,
I thought. “What were you talking to Jude about?”

“Nothing,” she said, a little too quickly.

I felt a shiver of unease; I sure didn’t trust that guy. Why would Berenice, after the downright psychotic speech he’d given us in that alleyway?

“Right.” I narrowed my eyes. “Just a friendly chat? Or was he trying to recruit you?”

“It’s none of your business,” she snapped, and quickened her pace, moving away from me.

I sighed inwardly. I didn’t mean to start an argument, but it kind of pissed me off that the only person I could possibly talk to about the crazy had to act like a total bitch. She’d made no effort to get to know anyone else in the flat. The only thing I knew for sure about her was she cared even less about her studies than I did, and for some reason, shadow-beasts went after her like flies to shit. Whatever her reasons were, they made her touchy as hell.

Don’t ask for help, then,
I thought.

Still. God knows why, but I felt kind of bad for not taking up her request to teach her. Maybe if she could make a shield, it might make the evil beasties stay away. But I wasn’t about to go chasing after her now. Plus, that was probably what she’d been asking Jude about.

My skin crawled at the thought. Ugh.

Back at the student village, I found Berenice just inside our building, looking at something on the wall. All the student houses had a noticeboard on the ground floor where people could pin announcements and information on whatever was happening that week. I had no clue what had interested Berenice so much, but at least it gave me the chance to catch up to her.